The Text: Matthew 9: 9-13, 18-26
Today’s gospel is about faith – the faith of Matthew (the tax-collector), the
faith of the
woman with the flow of blood, and the faith of a Gentile ruler named Jairus. But what is faith?
The first thing we must do is distinguish two sides to faith – the human act of believing from
the divine object that we believe in. “So faith comes from hearing…” (Romans 10:17) But to
believe what? Well, if we were Jews, it would be Torah (the Old Testament law). If we were Buddhists, it would be Buddha. If we were Muslims, it would be the Koran. But since we are Christians, the object of our faith is the Word of God, the Bible. More specifically it is Jesus, who is the Word of God in human flesh. We believe the Bible because it tells us about Jesus.
It is our means of encountering Jesus today.
For the three people in today’s Gospel, they didn’t need the Bible because they had Jesus right there in front of them. Each of them are called to faith in Jesus (Matthew, by accepting Jesus’ call to follow; the woman by seeking to touch his garment; and Jairus by trusting that Jesus will raise his daughter from death). In each of these three people we see their faith in Jesus by how they relate to him. They don’t just believe; they believe Jesus.
And they believe Jesus because of what they had seen and heard about him. This is not a blind faith; a leap in the dark (as Christian are often accused of doing). But neither is it complete seeing. It is seeing through a glass darkly.
Now it is common for people today to say something like this: It doesn’t matter what you believe just so long as you are sincere. In other words, what matters is not the object of faith (what we believe) but the act of faith (our believing). If you are sincere (that is, if you genuinely believe from the heart) then that’s all God requires, because God wants sincere hearts.
Well, it’s true that God wants sincere hearts, but he wants more than that. Sincerity is necessary but not sufficient for true faith. Actually, even we want more than mere sincerity.
Who of us would be satisfied with a doctor, for example, who sincerely believed that cancer could be cured by magic? Or who of us would be satisfied with an accountant who sincerely believed that 2 + 2 = 5? Or who of us would trust a travel agent who sincerely believed that every road ultimately leads to the same place? Muslim suicide bombers are very sincere that what they are doing is God-pleasing, and so is the Ku Klux Klan, but both are sincerely wrong.
Today’s Gospel shows that beyond sincerity, faith must have the right object. A map is no good if it is inaccurate; but neither is it of any use if it is accurate, but we don’t trust it or follow it. Faith in your doctor means both trusting his advice and following it. So too, faith in Jesus. That’s why Matthew’s example is so important, for it shows what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus. It means being willing to forsake everything to follow him. Discipleship is not only of the heart but of the will – it is our willing response to Jesus’ call.
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What’s interesting is that most education programmes today presume the opposite – that knowledge comes first, and then action. First you learn what to do – then you do it. It makes perfect sense, only that’s not the way Jesus does it. To the Jews who questioned Jesus’ learning, he said, “If your will were to do the will of my Father, you would understand my
teaching”.
In other words, for Jesus doing what is right (the will of the Father), comes before understanding. Only by doing will our understanding become clear.
Dostoyevsky, in his famous book, The Brother’s Karamazov, provides an excellent example of this. Madame Holocov (called a woman of little faith) is going through a crisis of faith, and she confesses her doubts to the great priest, Father Zossima. “I had faith as a little girl,”
she says, “but I went to college, and I lost it. I was taught that everything can be explained by science, that there is no immortal soul and that when I die there are only the flowers on my grave. Please give me back my faith.” And Father Zossima says, “I can’t do that.” And she says, “Well, I’ve got to get it back somehow. Prove it to me.” And he says again, “I can’t prove it, but there is a way you can get your faith back. You have doubts – you
doubt whether there is an immortal soul; you doubt whether you are something more than a complicated machine. Here is the way to deal with that doubt – love your neighbour with an active love. Show mercy on the poor and miserable, and you will gradually come to perceive that your neighbour is not just a complicated machine but has an immortal soul.” She replies, “I understand, but the trouble is that I find that I can love humanity but I
can’t love my neighbour.“ Father Zossima replies, “Then I have nothing else to tell you, because love in action is a much more harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.”
That’s true, isn’t it? It is much easier to have feelings of love for someone who is absent than actions of love when they are present. But that’s what God wants. He wants us to love, not merely humanity, but whoever crosses our path in our daily lives. And he wants us to love not only those neighbours who are loveable, but also those who treat us badly, those who hurt us, abuse us, slander us, cause us grief. For that is what mercy is – it is love for the
loveless shown that they might lovely be.
Thus Jesus says to the Pharisees in today’s Gospel: “Go and find out what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” Actions without sincerity (the heart) are as false as sincerity without action. God wants both, our hearts as well as our lives. Sacrifice is more about what we don’t do. Mercy is more about what we do. Thus, we are to measure our faith not by what we deny ourselves, what we resist, or who we exclude, but rather by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include. Mercy shows compassion for the weak, the fallen, the helpless and the miserable. Mercy is the soul of sacrifice, and thus of the essence of God.
Yubis was a middle-aged woman filled with grief who didn’t know where to turn. In 2007, Yubis’s husband, a missionary in Columbia (South America), was brutally murdered for his faith and teachings about Jesus Christ. Her two-year-old daughter became so despondent that she stopped speaking. She would only draw pictures, with each one just saying one word: “Daddy”. However, with the help of a Christian Mission organisation, Yubis received
support and healing, along with counselling for her daughter. In a recent interview she said,
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“I wanted vengeance on those who killed my husband – I know who they are. But now God has shown me that the best vengeance would be for me to tell them about Jesus. So that is what I plan to do.” That’s mercy.
In this we see that mercy is not weakness, as it is often supposed. Nor is it acquiescence to sin. Russian leader, Catherine the Great, once quipped when caught in sin: “The good Lord will pardon; that is his trade.” Perhaps you’ve heard people say something similar: “It is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.”
But any who know what it costs to forgive someone who sins against them, knows this is false. And anyone who knows what God paid for our forgiveness will not dare make light of his mercy. God is both just and merciful, which is why the Father sent his Son to die in our place. On the Cross, Jesus got the justice while we got the mercy.
“Your faith has saved you.” In the end, it is faith in Jesus that makes all the difference. It is faith that saves us. It is faith that lets Jesus into our souls; and to have Jesus in our souls is what salvation is. At the end of the movie, Saving Private Ryan, the old Ryan stands before the grave of Tom Hanks (who died saving Ryan’s life many years before). He recalls Hank’s last words to him as he lay dying: “Earn this”. As an old man, Ryan is still unsure whether he
has done enough good to “earn his life” and repay Hank’s for his sacrifice for him. Thank God, Jesus did not say “Earn this” from the cross. Instead, he said: “Forgive them”, and so he has, and so he does, and so he calls us who are forgiven to pass it on, to follow him in showing mercy to those around us, for that is our faith, and that is our sure and certain hope. In the name of Jesus. Amen.